Your website’s homepage is arguably the most important page you’ll create. It’s where most visitors will enter your site, and where they will decide whether they want to explore further. A well-designed homepage establishes your synagogue’s voice and mission, welcomes new users, and guides them to take further action.
Here are five tips for designing your homepage:
1) Assume the User Doesn’t Know who You are
One common pitfall is focusing too heavily on content, not on introducing your synagogue. Think of your homepage as a high-level overview of your congregation’s answers to the questions of who, what, and why. There should be an emphasis on telling your unique story, highlighting what sets you apart, and why your user should care.
2) Don’t Overwhelm User
Including too much information will only intimidate or confuse new visitors. Each section should only include a sentence that gives a brief overview of the content and a link to more detailed internal pages.
Include white space, imagery, and other visual elements to break apart blocks of the text. Remember: if the information isn’t scannable and easily digestible, you risk losing your audience’s attention.
3) Keep Users Engaged
To engage your audience, consider your page’s usability. Your homepage should have organized in a way that makes sense. For example, if you know which pages are frequently visited, make sure they’re the easiest pages to find.
You’ll also want to ensure the page is mobile-friendly. There’s nothing more annoying than not being able to view a website because it wasn’t built with mobile browsers in mind.
4) Make Your Content Accessible
Some sites may be more accessibility-focused than others, it’s important to regularly follow a few basic guidelines:
- Color contrast: Make sure that the background color of your page contrasts with any text (ex. dark color on light background).
- Font choices: Keep body text sans-serif font to ensure legibility.
- Hierarchy: Establish visual hierarchy to make the page easy to understand. Headlines, body text, and buttons should be distinct form each other.
- Alt text: Include alt text for images to improve SEO and provide crucial information for people with impaired vision.
- Widgets: Having an accessibility widget is a good start, but go beyond the widget to ensure your pages are completely accessible.
5) Include a Call to Action
Be sure you have an end goal in mind. When a user reaches the end of your page, they should be prompted to act through a ‘call to action’ (CTA).
If a user reaches the bottom of your page and hasn’t found what they’re looking for, the CTA can serve as a final resource to guide them to what they need.
Your homepage should (and can) be a compelling introduction to your congregation that helps users to engage with your congregation.